Mr. Weiner’s shame

Our opinion: A congressman is forced to confess to his lies about his questionable behavior. Is this the best the voters of Brooklyn and Queens can do?

Say this for U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner. He’s done the impossible. He’s made Christopher Lee look like, if not a model citizen, at least a responsible adult.

Mr. Lee, you might recall, was another congressman, from western New York, caught up in a scandal much like Mr. Weiner is. When the news broke that Mr. Lee had sent a woman who posted a personal ad on Craigslist a cellphone photo of himself without a shirt, he had the decency to succumb to pressure from the House Republican leadership and vanish. His resignation in February came in a matter of hours.

Mr. Weiner, a Brooklyn Democrat, might have learned something from that sorry episode. Instead, he lacks, among many other things, Mr. Lee’s sense of shame.

First, he sent a lewd photo of himself in his underwear to a young woman over the Internet. When the incident became public, he lied about it. He claimed his Twitter account had been hacked and even suggested that the altogether fictitious event warranted an official investigation.

Only when it was obvious that his cover-up wasn’t working did Mr. Weiner tell the unseemly truth about a well-established pattern of online sexual banter with women he doesn’t know. His news conference Monday was at times petulant and pathetic.

Meanwhile, Mr. Weiner refuses to resign. His defense is that he broke no laws, as if meeting such a standard should comfort anyone.

The more intriguing case for Mr. Weiner to remain in Congress is one that he, of course, can’t make himself. But to judge him, sternly yet fairly, requires an acknowledgement of who else serves in Congress.

The malfeasance there includes acts worse than a preoccupation with talking dirty in a high-tech way. Nor is Mr. Weiner the only one so capable of sexual indiscretion. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., kept his seat, after all, despite his admission that he patronized prostitutes. He, then, has broken laws.

Mr. Weiner’s defenders also will point out, surely, that any political banishment of him requires making a public issue of someone’s private life. Those who want more respectable people in government will be accused of acting as their own moral police force.

It’s a mess, and one entirely of Mr. Weiner’s doing. Pity on his constituents in the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn and Queens. That’s some sordid muck they have to wade through between now and the next election, if indeed Mr. Weiner is lucky enough to survive that long.